Battle Report: Reader submitted. BA vs IG


Hey folks! Ok, I am working my way through a backlog reader submissions and other businesss. Here is another batrep! Enjoy.

Brothers,

I’m afraid I bring grave news, a patrol of the glorious Blood Angels were defeated by the perfidious Imperial Guard. The survivors are even now doing penance to clean their souls.

The setting: 500 point battle, minimum 1 HQ, 2 Troops, annihilation

The Blood Angels (9 year old general playing his GW Academy passing out game)
- Brother Corbulo
- 5 Man Assault Squad with Power Fist & Rhino with extra amour
- 10 Man Tactical Squad with LasCannon
- 2 Death Company with jump packs

The Perfidious Guard (GW store manager)
- 1 Command Squad with a Primors Psycher (never even found out what he can do)
- 1 Veteran Squad with Vox & meltagun in a Chimera with multi laser
- 1 squad with Vox & flamer in a Vendetta (3 twin linked lascannons)
- 1 squad with Vox and flamer

(How is that balanced? 1.5 squads of BA with a Rhino vs. 4 squads of IG with a multi-laser Chimera and a Vendetta with 3 twin lascannons!!!! Who is the muppet that makes up these points costs?)

Blood Angels win the dice and go first. BA’s set up with Tac squad in a building to the left, Rhino with Corbs and RAS behind a building on the right, DC tucked in behind the Rhino.

IG set up with a squad in a building to the left, with the Chimera behind it, Cmnd in a building on the right with the Vendetta on the ground behind it.

Turn 1
- Rhino fails its overcharge and stalls. Lascannon shoots at the command squad and misses (a regular event….)
- IG
o Vendetta storms forward and fires on the Rhino (3 twin linked lascannon) – 1 dead Rhino, all BA’s bail out
o Chimera storms forward and fires on the assault squad killing one BA (killed 2 but Corbs brings one back)
o All other shooting misses

Turn 2
- Corbs and the assault squad moved into cover, lascannon missed again
- IG
o Vendetta moved forward and gravchute deployed its squad on top of the Tac squad
o Its squad fires on the Tac squad and kills one
o Chimera moved forward and deployed its veteran squad beside Corbs
o Chimera then fired on corbs and killed 1 assault trooper
o The squad fires as well and kills one more

Things are looking even worse

Turn 3
- Tac squad fires on the Vendetta, missing with everything (it was gently explained to the 9 year old that maybe the IG squad standing next to them would have been a better target)
- Corbs and his squad fired on the Veteran squad, killing two and then assaulted them killing 3. IG guard kill the sergeant in reply but break, are caught and killed.
- Death Company try to assault the Rhino but fail
- IG
o Vendetta fires on Corbs and kills the last of the Assault Squad
o Loads of firing, all misses or saves except for two Tac squad which are killed by a flamer

Turn 4
- Death Company chew on the Chimera and fail to do damage,
- Lascannon misses Vendetta (again)
- Corbulo lobs a Krak grenade at the Vendetta and actually damages it (no shooting for one turn)
- Tac company assault the guard squad next to them killing 4 for no loss, IG run, are caught and die

- IG
o Vendetta runs away and hides behind a building
o Chimera fire on DC killing one
o IG squad fire on the DC killing the second one (fire by ranks is just mad!)

Turn 5
- Corbs runs into the building with the Tactical squad
- Lascannon misses again
- IG
o Chimera, the Vendetta and a sniper fire at Corbs but he survives

Game carries on two further turns with no losses on either side


Thoughts
As far as I can see the BA couldn’t have done a whole lot more – apart from the bad luck (Lascannon continually missing and the Rhino stalling on turn one) he only made one bad decision when the Tac squad fired on the Vendetta rather than the IG squad gravchuted in next to them.

I can’t see how BA are competitive at 500 points with a legal formation. The IG Command squad and 2nd squad did pretty much nothing for the whole game, and with the remainder the BA force was wiped out. Whereas last week my other son played a 500 point game with Tyranids and almost won (would have won but for poor rolling with a Tervigon). Maybe the new codex will make a difference but I can’t honestly see how 500 points gives you enough to beat IG? In particular the Vendetta was just mad, jumping around all over the battlefield and unleashing 3 twin linked lascannons on everything! In discussion afterwards the general consensus is that the only marine 500 point which is competitive is a librarian with loads of scouts – but of course we can’t do that as scouts are elite, sigh.

One picture attached of turn 2.

Main thing though, my son enjoyed it and just enough silly things happened (Lascannon missing every shot, Corbs damaging the Vendetta with a Krak grenade) that he kept laughing the whole way through and now wants to destroy the guard with a decent amount of points.


Keep em coming!

Jawaballs

5 comments:

Brandon Dudley said...

if im not mistaken the IG player had 50 points over. so i wouldnt call it a fair game.

Decanblue said...

My 500 point list that worked pretty good was something like this:

Terminator Chaplain (125 points)
2 Assault Squads in Rhinos
1st Assault Squad had a power weapon (170 ish points)
2nd Assault Squad had a power fist (180ish points)
2 death company with the chaplain attached. (0 points)

I don't have the codex in front of me but that is fairly close to the right points.

Gives you two mobile bunkers and 10 assault marines to beat the snot out of any IG that are insane enough to get close to you. The terminator chaplain and his two death company guys just walk across the field behind the rhinos and shoot/attack anything that is crazy enough to get close to them. Plus they can contest anything the Rhino teams don't take.

You could trade out a 5 man assault squad for a 5 man tactical squad with a meltagun or plasma pistol/gun for about 160 points too. With a rhino and extra armor it's another 55 points. It's a little tighter that way I think points wise. Still fairly competitive in the groups I play with though.

Teeef said...

I run an 5M Assault squad, Sgt w/fist in a Rhino, 5M Tac Squad w/Meltagun & Rhino, 3M Death Co w/Rhino and Corbs. I like the mobility and I like to keep all three working as a team. If you can get two (or three) on one you can usually prevail before the opponent can react. Plus if all three are near Corbs you get the FC.

Usually Corbs rolls with the DC. I only attempt OC if failing is an option. Like I roll for the Tac Rhino and if it fails I just move the other two 12 and pop smoke on the leader and use them to block LoS or at least give cover to the stalled Rhino.

With three Rhinos I usually ignore my area objective and then gun one in reverse to take or contest my own objective near the end of the game.

The list works pretty well but any 500 point list has holes and for me it all comes down to the meltagun and the powerfist. If the meltagun roll works out and destroys their transport, dread or tank it all goes pretty well. If you whiff on the die… at 500 points you just have to enjoy that it is a fast game and you can always play another.

In your son's game if he dents the Vendetta right away it is a whole 'nuther game.

To go a whole game without a Lascannon doing any damage is tough to take but eventually comes the game when the enemy Land Raider goes boom on the first turn.

Kevinmcd28 said...

All I can say is that Russ's cost 180 points loaded out and vendettas like 160ish, expect a bigger list with a new BA codex due to gw trend.

Tacticalwithdrawal said...

Well, as I said in the report, the main thing was that my son enjoyed the whole thing and wants to do it again. The look on his opponent's face when Corbs almost took down the Vendetta with a Krak grenade was just priceless.

I just got annoyed with the Vendetta, the one time it was damaged it just flew and landed behind scenery on the other side of the board and was untouchable, mind you, takes it out of play for a round I suppose.

The thing we learned though was that we need the speed so as much as possible need to be Rhino'd or jump packed.

Can't wait for the new dex!

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